1901-1903 Art study at the Chicago Art Institute, also intensive
period of writing.

1903 Art study at the New York School of Art.

1904 While home in Springfield, Lindsay has his first episode of
visions. Much writing during this time as well as drawing,
including his "Map of the Universe."

1905 Back in New York, Lindsay is dissuaded from a career in art
by his instructors. More visions. Tries to sell his poetry on
the streets in NYC, voluntarily teaches night courses in art
history at YMCA, with such success that this soon turns into a
paying job.

1908 April-May: Lindsay walks from New York City to Hiram, Ohio.
In August Lindsay is at home in Springfield, where he witnesses
the race riots there.

1909 In Springfield, writing. Lindsay mostly remains at home,
writing and drawing, for the next three years.

1910-11 700 copies of Linday's The Village Magazine
self-published. Reviewed by Hamlin Garland, who exchanges visits
with Lindsay.

1912 May-September: Lindsay begins cross-country walk from
Springfield, intending to travel by foot to California, ends in
New Mexico. On the way he gives out copies of his Rhymes to Be
Traded for Bread, The Gospel of Beauty, and an illustrated book,
all self published; Lindsay also works as a harvester in Kansas.

1913 Publication of poems in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse,
including "General Wiliam Booth Enters Heaven." "General Booth"
becomes the title poem of a book published in the fall by
Mitchell Kennerley and is awarded the Poetry prize for best poem
published in the magazine that year.

1914 Recitations of "The Congo" in Springfield and Chicago.
Publication of The Congo and Other Poems and Adventures While
Preaching the Gospel of Beauty in the fall. Romance with Sara
Teasdale, at one point headed toward marriage, comes to a crash
at year's end when she marries Ernst Filsinger, a wealthy
businessman.

1915 Recitation before President Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet.
The Art of the Moving Picture published; for the second time,
Lindsay honored for best poem of the year by Poetry, this time
for "The Chinese Nightingale."

1916 A Handy Guide for Beggars published.

1916-19 Recitations throughout the United States.

1917 The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems published.

1920 Three books published this year: The Golden Whales of
California and Other Rhymes in the American Language, The Daniel
Jazz and Other Poems, and The Golden Book of Springfield. In
England, recitations at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Westminster
Central Hall.

1920-22 Almost continuous touring in the United States.

1921 Summer trip to Glacier National Park, Montana.

1923 Publication of Going-to-the Sun and Collected Poems.
Collapses while on tour in January, cancels schedule for rest of
year.

1925 February: Meets Elizabeth Conner. May 19: Marries Elizabeth
Conner, who is 23 at the time.

1926 Two books published this year: Going-to-the-Stars and The
Candle in the Cabin. Daughter, Susan Doniphan Lindsay, born in
May.

1927 Son, Nicholas Cave Lindsay, born in September.

1928-29 October-March: In great financial difficulty, Lindsay
makes a marathon speaking tour in the East and Midwest that
eliminates his debts. Special $500 prize from Poetry magazine
for lifelong achievement.

1929 Two more books published: The Litany of Washington Street
and Every Soul a Circus. In April Lindsay moves his family to
Springfield. May 10 in Chicago, he recites "The Virginians Are
Coming Again" at a féte arranged by Poetry.

"committed suicide in 1931--in the very house where he was
born--by drinking Lysol. That tragic year was the nadir of the
early Depression, and another Midwestern poet (Hart Crane) chose
to end his life a few months later. Although the precise alchemy
Lindsay's suicide may never be known, he was clearly tormented
by debt, writer's block, and the pervasive sense of doom that
accompanied this year of national bankruptcy and personal
suffering--catastrophes that a less optimistic writer may have
been able to take in stride.....the events of Lindsay's life-not
merely his birth and death in the same house at 603 South Fifth
Street." (house originally built by A. Lincoln's sister,
renovated and now on tour.)

John PRITCHETT

ABT 1750 - ____

ID Number: I79015

Notes

The ancestors of the Pritchett family come from Wales early in
the eighteenth century and settled in Virginia and North
Carolina, the name being spelled both Pritchett and Pritchard in
the old court records.

ID Number: I93985

Notes

Book on Chesterfield County History says: William Perdue, a
French Huguenot, received a patent of 240 acres in 1744. John
Perdue in 1746 patented 400 acres." Book entitled "Virginia
Colonial Abstracts" mentions William in 1732 and 1736 and John
and Richard in 1736.